Seven Steps to Fix the Opioid Addiction Crisis Now by Dr. Richard Juman

February 10, 2015

“Last week, Professional Voices revisited an issue that The Fix has been focused on since its inception: the public health debacle caused by the overprescribing of opioid pain medications, and the related increase in heroin use and overdose, which has contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of U.S. citizens. By now, the underlying issues that developed the epidemic are well-known, which makes the fact that we are still deeply embedded in the crisis that much harder to stomach.

The response to this crisis has been tragically sluggish, because we actually already have the knowledge and the tools that we need to drastically improve matters. We know what needs to be done to keep those who are already addicted alive. We know how to help people who are struggling with addiction enter recovery. We know how to stop creating more problems with prescribed opioids. But we also know that we just haven’t done a good job so far, and that now would be a good time to start.